And We Return!
by Silvyia
Summary: A sequel to An Unexpected Turn. As Alex continues her not so peaceful life in her favorite show, she begins to make friends, enemies, and a few love interests. But with a few new characters coming into the fold, she isn't sure if this is as fun as she first assumed the show was. Will she come to terms with where she is, or hold on to the hope of returning? ::/ON HAITUS\::
1. Recapping? I guess

To WargishBoromirFan: I appreciate the concern, but I won't be taking down either of the chapters. They DO have things to do with the story, and they're important to the storylines, so I won't take them down. Thanks, really, but I think I'm fine.

For the past three months, Tex had been training me. Yeah. You heard right. Agent Texas was an AI, which I had learned after I almost passed out from shock, and when she 'died', she went into the nearest armor to her. Which was, sadly, my new armor. It took her about a week before she finally stopped giving me the silent treatment, and a few more days after that to kind of open up to me. We're closer now, that's for sure, I just don't know how much closer. She still didn't trust me with her deeper secrets, but then again, neither did I. I did, however, end up spilling about my past to her. It came up by accident one night while in an argument with her, and she made me explain. After calling me insane, ignoring me for the rest of the night, and then bombard me with questions the next morning, she finally believed me. She promised to keep it a secret with me.

But yeah, like I said, she had been training me. I believe her exact words were, " _If I'm gonna be stuck with some sack a' shit like you, we might as well make you useful to the team._ " Talk about motivation... Mostly gun training, target practice, making me run around for hours and getting up early in the morning. You know, stereotypical training montage like in the movies.

Though in that time, the two of us had found out that I was actually pretty decent with the sniper rifle. Not as good as Texas, of course, but at least I was getting somewhere and Texas didn't think I was a complete waste of time. I took an interest in fighting with swords, since I thought they were cool, but lemme tell you folks, it's a lot harder than the people on TV make it out to be. I trained with Tucker for a while. Or, rather, we claimed we were training but most of the time we were just joking around and pretending to be assassins.

Another topic to catch up on, now, is my relationship status. I guess. So, uh, yeah, Caboose! Caboose and I have become closer since we met, but it's kind of hard not to be friends with Caboose. He just, like, becomes an instant friend the second you see him. He is always at my side, like a sidekick or a lonely puppy. It's weird. But Adorable. Weird adorable. Weirdorable. I don't fucking know. ANYWAY. Tucker! Tucker and I have become a lot closer, too. Tucker is like the closest friend I have here, other than Caboose. I have become closer with all of the Blues, even the Reds know me by now, but I trust Tucker the most. He makes himself out to be like a big perverted jerk (which he is, by the way), but he is somebody you can trust with your darkest secrets and feel comfortable around him. A deeper relationship, I guess.

But don't let him hear I said that, he'd use it against me any chance he got and then I'd have to punch him.

Church still has this little bit of suspicion about me, but it has died down considerably since when we first met. I guess that's good. He still doesn't trust me though. Which sucks, because he won't give me the sniper rifle and it seems to be the only weapon I'm any good at here. Ass.

And on to the Reds! Welp, the Sergeant doesn't like me because I wear a shade of blue, but he refuses to acknowledge me as his enemy because of me being a girl. He said that there was no way a female would be in the middle of a war, and that we belonged in the kitchen. I think he's still recovering from the punch I gave him, but yeah, we're good other than that lil incident there.

Simmons is still just as awkward around girls as ever. It's honestly really adorable and only makes me want to be around him more. He is just so cute! Other than that, though, I like to pay attention when he's working on electronics. I have always been fascinated with robots since I was a kid, so I loved to learn all about electronics and how they work. Simmons doesn't seem to mind, as long as I stay far, far away from him while he works.

Grif is, uh... yeah. I have no words. He is lazy, like everyone says he is, but he's actually some pretty good company. He's funny, and he's easy to talk to. And at least he doesn't mind chatting with me. Sarge still refuses to acknowledge me as anything more than a female who somehow got into this canyon, and Simmons can't go three seconds around me without almost fainting out of embarrassment.

Congratz, Grif, you won by having teammates only slightly worse than you.

And Donut... he is amazing. He is the one friend I have here that I can talk to about girl things. It's weird, I know, but he seems really comfortable about it. I may be a tom boy, but I still like to get the girly things off my chest every now and then, and he was always the first person to go to for that kind of stuff.

So, to recap: Tucker and Caboose are my closest friends, Church doesn't trust me with a gun, Texas is still an asshole, Grif is a nice person, Sarge is also still an asshole, and Donut and Simmons are just plain adorable.

Nice recap.

Sheila... now that was a name that I hadn't heard of in a while. Sheila, the tank, was still outside, between the two colored bases, still pretty royally fucker over by those explosions that Sarge had shot at her. Of course, we had all tried to fix her. Especially Mike, though he ended up just sitting with her and hugging one of her tire treads, and I still can't decide whether his love for her is adorable or creepy.

Or both.

But anyway, back to the whole 'catching you up' thing. Not much else has happened since then, actually. I mean, Tex has been training me pretty aggressively, and she keeps me up at night with all of her insults or witty jokes, but it's for the better. I do have to agree with her. If I'm going to be here for a while, I might as well get useful, even if... even if I don't want to stay here.

Of course, that's still up for debate to me. I loved them, the Reds and Blues, they're funny and we go through some pretty fun adventures. They've become my family while my stay here, but.. what about my _real_ family? My flesh and blood family? My older brother, Joshua, my mother and father, my beautiful little niece? What has happened with them, in that world or dimension, whatever it's called. Has any time passed at all? Maybe when I entered this world, that world paused? And after all this is done, I'd go back and Lexi would come back with some still steaming hot pancakes and bacon, and the babysitter would begin cleaning the dishes. Ha. Wishful thinking, I don't think I should do that so often. It brings up my hopes. I shouldn't do that. I shouldn't raise my hopes so high of going home so soon. I shouldn't raise my hopes of going home at all.

Well, anyway. I got off track, sorry. But here's the basic recap of the three months I've been here... cherish your family, kids. Cherish them like you'll never see them again, because with my luck, I probably won't.


	2. Good Morning

((EternalSamurai: Ikr))

So. I guess there were a few things that were left out in the Recapping from yesterday, but they'll be revealed later on, I guess. But another thing that I left out was sleeping arrangements, or, lack thereof. Tucker, Mike, and Church (which I found out was named Leonard) still slept in their own rooms, of course, but I meant my own sleeping arrangements. I didn't really have a bedtime, but because of Texs' constant getting up early rule, I always got tired at around 9 PM, so I always went to bed around that time. And went to sleep in whatever room was closest.

There weren't any more rooms, and none of the guys wanted to change rooms or share rooms with someone else for me, so I was always bunking with someone else. Usually Tucker or Mike, since Church still didn't trust me or want me in his room. Jerk.

So, I woke up to Tex shouting at me to get up, like I always do. I wasn't even mad. Having Tex do this for three months, I kind of got over it and actually woke up around the same time every day now, with or without Tex shouting at me. She just really liked yelling at me.

"Get up, something is going on." I groaned, turning over to lay on my stomach and using my hands to push myself up.

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing...?" Tex just sighed while I exit Mike's room to go find my armor case. I had had plenty of time to explore the base more within the three months of me living here, so I knew a lot more about the place. Don't get me wrong, though, I could still get lost here just as easily as day one. This place looked pretty small from the out, but on the inside, it was a fucking mansion. And coming from someone who actually _lived_ in one, I'm not even kidding.

I laughed at my own joke as I put on my armor. From the first time Tucker had helped me put it on, I learned pretty quickly how it worked and where the pieces went. So much so, in fact, it barely took me a minute to put it on. I thought back to what Tex said while waking me up ever so nicely.

"Somethin' happening? What, what's happening, Tex?" That certainly woke me up pretty quickly. I rushed to put on my helmet as I jogged out the door of the armory.

"Hell if I know, but they're yelling about something outside." Oh yeah, that helps. Thanks, Tex. "Shut up, I can't see through these walls, asshole." Oh, another thing I left out in the recap was that being brain buddies with Tex apparently meant she could hear all my thoughts.

So, back to outside. As I got closer to the entrance to the base, I could see what she meant. Or hear what she meant. I heard Tucker and Church talking outside, in very loud voices. I stepped outside and turned to look at Tucker, Mike, and Church standing out by the walls, with Tucker and Mike having their backs to me and Church looking at Tucker as they 'talked'.

"Tucker, I am _not_ your _mother_ , stop coming and tattling to me whenever something is wrong!" Church threw his hands in the air to emphasize his point, and Tucker only responded by taking a step away from Mike.

"I'm telling you, Church, he's crazy," Tucker pointed at Mike, who was standing there innocently. "He keeps threatening me and talking a scary voice!" Oh. O'Malley. I could hear Tex inwardly groan. I knew about her past with the A.I., and I could tell she wasn't taking it too well being forced to have to work close to him again, especially right after getting away from him.

I heard Mike scoff, and I walked closer to the three, much to Tex's dismay. She wanted far as away from O'Malley as she could be. Unluckily for her, and lucky for me, she could only talk through me, she couldn't actually use my body. I don't know how I would respond if she were able to do that. Probably hide myself in the darkest corner I could find to stay away from everyone else.

"No, I didn't," Mike looked at Tucker, defending himself. I don't think he even knows that O'Malley was in his armor. If he did, he wasn't showing it, and he wasn't smart enough to pretend, so he wasn't hiding it.

"Oh, so you _didn't_ threaten to cut off my head and give it to Church as a birthday present?" Tucker asked, smug. Mike shrugged, then shook his head no.

Church sighed, and he finally took notice of me. Finally. I walked up next to him and listened while Tucker and Mike bickered. "What's goin' on?" I whispered to him.

"They're competing for my attention," he replied. Most people would be happy, even smug, that people would be fighting over them, but Church did not seem very pleased about it. "It gets very tiring. Listen guys-" Church spoke louder at the end, addressing the other two teammates now. "I thought we'd established by now-"

"Excuse me.." I heard someone speak up from behind us. I nearly jumped from surprise. God damn, I have people sneaking up on me way too much here and I'm still not used to it. I turned around to see someone standing behind me and Church, in royal purple armor. Church only looked over his shoulder briefly to acknowledge his presence.

"Okay, _pal_ , one second, okay? I'm in the middle of something here." Rude. I shook my head as Church continued rambling on to Tucker and Mike about how he wasn't friends with any of them and that they should stop fighting over it, and turned, walking over to the man Church had waved off.

"Hey, what's up? Don't mind Church there, he's just an ass. How can I help?" I asked him nicely, other than the quip to Church at least, and he sighed, happy that someone was responding to him.

"Hello, Sir, my name is Du'Fresne. Uh, are you.." he went silent for a moment, thinking of a name. "Private Tucker..?" I almost choked. _Me?_ Being _Tucker_? Yeah, hell no. I think I'd rather die than be that sad sack a shit. No offense to you, Tucker pal, but you are not someone I would be pleased to be.

"No, I'm Private Derrix. Tucker is over there-" I pointed to Tucker, who looked over at me when he noticed me looking at him. Church stopped his rant when he heard one of his mens' names' being called, and looked over at the two of us. "-standing next to Church and Caboose." I reffered to Mike as 'Caboose' with him so he knew who I was talking about. He probably was not on a first name basis with any of us. He seemed confused for a second, probably because he couldn't recall anyone telling him about a 'Private Derrix'. After his initial confusion, however, he cleared his throat and turned to look at Church. Wow, rude. I was the one who began talking to him.

"I received your call for a medic."

"Medic...?" Mike asked, confused. "That was like, three months ago.." I was actually surprised that Mike had kept track of time since then, or since _ever_ , but I had to agree. We called for a medic for Tex over three months ago.

"Yeah, what'd you do," Tucker scoffed, and I knew he was going to joke about how long it took him to get here. " _crawl_ all the way here?" I held in a laugh and walked back over to stand in between Tucker and Mike. I highfived Tucker in the process and he crossed his arms, smug as ever. The medic, however, did not appreciate our humor, and sputtered a quick response.

"I-I came as quickly as I could!" We all gave him blank looks. He sighed, dejected. "Where's the patient?" He asked, trying to get the focus off of how slow his response was for a medic.

Church sighed, turning to look at the two graves behind the medic. "Well, she's about fifty yards behind you and six feet below." Tucker moved so he could look at the graves too, and the medic turned around to see what he meant. When he spotted the graves, he visibly shifted, uncomfortable. "Oh," came his simple response. A moment of silence ensued, and the medic finally turned around, pointing at the graves.

"Who's in the other grave?"

I sighed as Church began explaining about how it was him, and how he was the one who died and came back as a ghost, and Mike intervened somewhere to say it wasn't a ghost and yadda yadda yadda. I didn't listen, instead walking over to Tucker. "Wassup?" I asked calmly, taking in his stiff look. He was quiet for a moment, but he eventually turned his helm to look down at me.

"What? Oh, yeah, no, nothing's wrong," he shrugged, nonchalantly, and looked back at the two graves. I was quiet while I tried to think about why he would be upset, but before I could say anything, two sniper shots rang out and I almost jumped ten feet into the air. God _damn_ it! Every time!

"Scatter!" Church shouted, and I recently learned that that meant to _get the hell away from there_. Tucker grabbed my hand and we both ran into the entrance of the base, staying in the doorway to look outside, but staying further in enough to not get shot at. I stood behind him, his arm outstretched protectively. A few more sniper shots rang out, a few coming terrifyingly close to our heads, before they started shooting repeater rounds at us, too. Now they were just getting desperate. From where I stood behind Tucker, I could only faintly make out the sound of Simmons, pausing the repeater shooting to yell at us.

" _Yeah, suck it blue!"_


	3. Surrender!

((Hey guys! Since school is starting up next month, and it's going to be taking lots of my time, I wanted to make a schedule for my stories. With the Ultron story, The Aftermath, I will try to make an update once every day except for when something important comes up. For this one, though, I wanted to ask you about. I was thinking maybe twice a week, since these chapters are longer. What'dya say? Anyway, enjoy this chap :D))

Tucker and I had left the comfort of the doorway to the base once we heard Church calling for us, instead making our way to a bunch of rocks he and the new medic, Du'Fresne, were hiding behind. Mike was hiding behind a larger boulder further away. Behind Tucker's rock. I am still curious on what he claimed it for, but I really kind of didn't want to know.

"Okay, Tucker," Church started, shouting above the gunfire to devise a plan. "I need you to get up there, help Caboose short up the defense, establish a suppressing fire, and hold that position until further notice."

Tucker and I were both quiet for a second as we tried to digest what he said.

"I didn't-" Tucker looked at me questioningly. "Yeah, I don't-" I agreed with his confused look. "I didn't hear anything you just said," Tucker shook his head at Church, and I looked at him confused. Church groaned dramatically.

"Just go over to Caboose's rock and fire your gun a bunch!" I 'ah'd quietly, but Tucker still didn't seem to be convinced on going over there. In fact, more than anything, he didn't want to go now.

" _That_ rock?" He asked, turning and pointing at his rock. Church nodded his head. "Okay, one, that's _my_ rock, dude, and two, hell no!"

"We do NOT have time to discuss this!"

Tucker and Church began arguing with eachother, and I groaned. This was _so_ getting us nowhere. So while they continued arguing, I took the pistol from Tucker's hip holster and stood up. I would have used my own gun, but I had just woken up and I didn't think about taking my pistol out with me. Du'Fresne just so happened to see the movement, however, and began freaking out as I raised my arms and pointed the gun at the four Reds standing outside the base. Grif, Simmons, Donut, and Sarge were standing higher up the hill and firing their guns at us.

"Wha-what are you _doing_?" He yelled, putting his hands on his head, fighting himself to stay down so he wouldn't get shot at my them.

I ignored him. I ignored Tucker and Church, too, as they heard the medic yelling and turned to see what the commotion was about. Tucker seemed to notice that his pistol was gone before the others did, and he suddenly knew where it was.

I had shot the pistol once already, before Tucker could even shout at me for taking his gun. Everything seemed to stop, and I held my breath as I waited to see if the bullet hit the target. A split second later, I heard a shout and Simmons fell down, dropping his gun and causing Grif and Donut to run for cover somewhere. Sarge stayed put, taking a step closer to Simmons to cover him but otherwise still as he continued firing.

Tucker, Church, and Du'Fresne were all quiet as they stared at me in shock. Sarge stopped firing momentarily to check if Simmons was okay.

I got back down and gave Tucker a look. When he didn't move, still staring at me in shock for what I just did, I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Go! Go, damn it!" I waved Tucker away, and he hurriedly got to his feet and ran over to Mike. I looked at Du'Fresne expectantly. When he didn't do anything but stare back at me, I nodded my head toward Mike and Tucker. "You next."

He looked at them and then back at me, as if I were crazy. "I- but- I'm just a medic! I don't even have a gun!" Church looked at Mike.

"Uh, huh. I see..." he mumbled to himself, then got up and pointed his gun at Mike. And then shot at him. I heard Mike shouting in pain, yelling about his foot, and Church turned to Du'Fresne, crossing his arms. "Well, looks like one of my men needs your medical expertise. Get over there, Doc." Du'Fresne just sighed and ran over there as well, reaching the two just before the Reds continued firing at us. Judging by how many shots were ringing out at the same time, it seems that the other two, Donut and Grif, might have gotten back out to help Sarge shoot at us.

Though just as Du'Fresne got around to looking at Mike's leg, the Reds stopped firing at us.

Church and I were still for a moment, looking at each other in confusion. Why'd they stop shooting?

"Why aren't they shooting?" Church whispered, standing a bit higher to look over the rock. "I dunno," I shrugged. I racked my brain to try to remember what happened here, and what they were doing. Of course, three months after watching this one scene once a long time ago, it was kind of hard to remember... OH! Bullets! They were out of bullets! "Maybe they're out of ammo?" I shrugged again, trying to appear cool about it so Church wouldn't get more suspicious to me than he already was.

Before he could respond to me, though, Sarge yelled at us from across the hill.

"HEY, BLUES! WE'RE GIVIN' YOU THE CHANCE TO SURRENDER!" I scoffed. He was giving _us_ the chance to surrender? Yeah, they were definitely out of bullets. And they also must have been getting desperate to win if they were going with _that_ lame excuse.

" _Surrender?_ "


	4. Shiritori

"Yeah, they're definitely out of ammo," Church agreed.

"And desperate," I sighed. Tucker, Mike, and Du'Fresne were all hiding behind the other rock, Tucker's rock, to be more precise.

"Should we play along...?" Church looked at me, whispering. I took a moment, hesitating while I thought about it. I sighed, then I shrugged at him. He shrugged as well, then stood up to look at them over the boulder, shouting, "WHAT ARE YOUR TERMS?"

The Reds were quiet for a moment while they thought, probably talking to each other judging by the way they were moving.

"ALL RIGHT, BLUES," Sarge began, shouting. Though it was completely unnecessary, as we were the only ones in the canyon, so the sound echoed all around us. "WE WANT YOUR FLAG-" he stopped abruptly, looking behind him slightly. Simmons took a step closer to Sarge and said something, then Sarge cleared his throat and turned back to look at us. "-TO STAY RIGHT WHERE IT IS. KEEP THE FLAG."

I grinned and Church stifled a laugh. They were just making themselves look like idiots.

"BUT WE DO WANT OUR MECHANIZED DROID GUY BACK."

Church stopped laughing and stiffened, whispering, "uh, oh."

"YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS 'SENOR EL ROBOTO'."

Yeah, none of us knew him by that name. I looked at Church.

"No way, I am _not_ giving back my body!" He whispered, knowing the look I was giving him. "I just got this thing!"

Before I could respond to him, Sarge started shouting again.

"AND DON'T THINK YOU CAN KEEP HIS NUTS." I face palmed. "OR BOLTS, OR OTHER MECHANICAL PARTS."

Church sniffed and cleared his throat, standing up a little further to look at them better. "Uh- he-he's not here anymore!"

"Yeah, he left!" Tucker shouted, shrugging his shoulders. "He was all, like, 'Sayanora!' and then he just took off."

While Church and Sarge continued their conversation, I gave Tucker a look. When he just gave me a confused look, I whisper-shouted, "Sayanora is not Spanish, idiot."

"Yeah, that's French!" Church snorted. I face palmed again. "Alright, alright, let's try this.." Church stretched, standing up fully, before cupping his hands over his mouth. I really didn't know why they kept doing that, it doesn't help. They're still wearing their helmets, it isn't going to do any good.

"HEY, REDS!" Church shouted, gaining their attention, as well as our own. The voice echoed a few times. "HOW ABOUT A MEDIC?" Du'Fresne and I both gasped. "WOULD YOU TAKE A MEDIC AS A HOSTAGE?" Du'Fresne sighed, dropping his hands.

"A hostage?" he asked, sounding as if he had just officially given up hope for us. "But I work for both sides!"

"Yeah, but they don't know that," I shrugged at him. He sighed. The Reds were quiet as they talked over it, huddling into a circle together to talk privately, as if we'd be able to hear them if they didn't. We might be in a canyon, but they were still pretty far away. "I'm supposed to go over there, though," Du'Fresne said, saddened that Church was willing to give him away instantly. I would be, too. Probably a little mad as well.

"Well, maybe they'll be nicer to you than Church is. Sorry, about that, by the way," I said, apologizing for Church's behavior. "He's just a jerk. You get used to it, though." He mumbled a 'yeah, yeah' to himself and sighed.

"Alright, go ahead and send me over. I don't think I'll be any more use over here," Du'Fresne shrugged. I kind of felt like he actually _wanted_ to go over there by now, and to be honest, I completely understood why. I mean the first person to talk to him on his arrival here was Church, and that was just him waving Du'Fresne off. Then they were willingly giving him away as hostage so that they could go without surrendering? Damn. Jerks.

Church nodded. "ALRIGHT, REDS. WE'RE SENDING OVER THE MEDIC -" Du'Fresne stood up, ready to walk over. "-NOW WHAT DO WE GET?"

Simmons was the one to answer. "YOU'RE SURRENDERING! YOU DON'T GET ANYTHING BUT HUMILIATION AND RIDICULE!" I snorted at that.

"We've already got that," I called back half-heartedly. "What else you got?" I asked, only half joking.

"ADMIT THAT THE RED TEAM SUCKS!" Church suddenly called out. And then it struck me. I remember this scene. This is going to go on for over two hours, damn it. I am not going to sit out here while they talked about this shit. But as I tried to sneak away, Church called me back.

"What the hell are you doing? We need you here, Derrix!" He whispered so only I could hear. Though I was certain that Du'Fresne could hear him too. He was a really bad whisperer.

"Dude, you guys are literally just going to sit here for two hours discussing this stuff, I'm not gonna sit and wait."

I ended up staying anyway. Tucker came back over to sit with us during our whisper-argument, and he talked me into staying through their two hour talk. Though Church had said that he thought I was overreacting, and that they wouldn't really be there for over two hours. Oh, if only he knew.

So here I sat, waiting with Tucker while Church and Mike talked with the Reds about how this was gonna happen. Or, mostly Church talking with the Reds, and Mike just standing behind him and crying about his pinky toe. Church shot his pinky toe, apparently. Du'Fresne was kneeling by him, looking over his foot for what little help he could offer.

"Terrace," Tucker said suddenly, bringing me back to reality, and, in kind, bringing me back to the game we were playing. A game I learned as a kid, called Shiritori. One person starts out by saying a random word, and the next person has to say a word that starts with the letter the first word ended in. Since Tucker said 'terrace', I had to find a word that began with 'e'.

"Envelope," I said quickly. I had actually meant to say 'elephant', but envelope was good enough.

"Entourage."

"Elephant."

"Tantalizing." Tucker actually knew a lot of big words.

"...germs?" I said, tripping over the word when I hurried to think of something. I don't know that many 'g' words.

"Satisfaction," he winked at me.

"Nation," I looked away, hiding my blush with a cough.

"Naughty," he leaned closer, whispering now. I leaned back a bit and looked anywhere but his eyes.

"Y-.. yard," I stuttered, cursing mentally when my mind began to halt and work slower. Curse him. With all the time I spent around him in the last three months, I should have been used to his flirting by now. I guess some things never change.

He leaned closer even more, and with my head pressed against the rock behind me, his face became increasingly closer to mine, to the point I could feel his breath on my lips. " _Di-_ "

"ALRIGHT!" Church shouted, getting everyone's attention and, thank the Gods, getting Tucker to lean back and look at him as he talked. Not without a wink, that is.

"You first, then we'll send over the medic," Church stated, putting his hands on his hips.

I took a moment to calm my nerves, suddenly very aware of how warm it was. It's gotta be this armor. When I stood up, I turned to see Grif standing in front of the other Reds. He groaned, his shoulders sagging in a sad, 'I've given up on all of you', motion.

"I would just like to let everyone know," he began, talking slowly. Church held back a laugh beside me, goding him on. "That I suck."

"And?"

"And I'm a girl."

"Go on..."

"And I wear pretty ribbons in my hair and I want to... _kiss_ all the boys," he visibly cringed at the last part, looking down at the ground.

"Okay," Simmons began, amusement clear in his voice. "Is that good enough?"

"Yeah," Church shouted, laughing. "Go ahead, Doc," Church said, quieter, to Du'Fresne. He begrudgingly walked over to Grif, stopping right in front of him.

These people are insane.


	5. Check up

((Sorry for the delay! I will be gone this weekend as well, to celebrate my birthday, so I hope the fluff at the end of this chapter will be enough until I get back3))

Only about seven minutes after Du'Fresne had left, Mike was lying down in his room with a bandage on his foot, and I was sitting on Tucker's rock while watching Tucker and Church talk about something. From what I understood, they were trying to figure out if they could use the robot body they took from the Reds (Lopez was his name) to try and fix Sheila, the tank. On the one hand, it'd be nice to have the upperhand against the Reds again, but on the other, Sheila was a jerk. So I'm just sitting here and watching how it'll turn out.

"Did you find it?" I heard Tucker ask. I sat up from my lounging position to look at the two, curious. Church was quiet for a second before he sighed.

"Nah, just the time and temperature options. It is currently 26 degrees, by the way." I scrunched up my nose. What?

"What? It's not 26 degrees, dude, that's freezing!" Tucker scoffed at Church, looking at his visor.

"Celsius, Tucker," Church corrected. I sighed and lied back down, already knowing that this was just gonna lead to another two hour argument. Speaking of which, I wonder how Du'Fresne is doing so far. I haven't spent even a day with the Reds, but from personal experience, they can be kind of a handful. Almost as much of a handful as the Blues. I briefly wondered if maybe I should go and check up on Mike. I hadn't seen him since Du'Fresne had left to go with the Reds, and that was about 10 minutes ago by now.

:: _Don't do it, Derrix. He'll be fine on his own. You should be practicing targets by now._ :: Texas intervened, warning me to go to the shooting range.

I decided I would go visit him.

"Dude, I am _not_ touching your lever! Pull it yourself!" Tucker shouted. I remembered what they were talking about, and I sat up, swinging my feet around and jumping off the rock. I walked toward the Blue base, walking between the two and leaning down to flip the switch without pausing my walk.

"Babies," I laugh, continuing my walk to find Mike. I could only imagine Tucker and Church stopping and just staring as I walked away, due to the sudden silence.

"Miiiiiike," I call in a sing-song tone, my voice echoing off the cement walls of the Blue base as I walked inside.

:: _Derrix, seriously. Shooting range. Practice targets._ ::

"Yeah?" I could hear him call. The echoes made it sound further away, but I knew by now where his room was. "I'm in my room," he called, proving my guess.

"Alright." :: _Derrix._ ::

I smile and walk further inside, pressing the joint buttons on the side of my helmet that released compressed air before sliding my helmet off, effectively shutting Tex up.

"You're really starting to get annoying," I breathed out, inhaling a breath of cold air from the base conditioners. This place has a lot of stuff that most military bases usually wouldn't have. And I also knew that Tex would be getting back at me for doing that. I just needed my own space from time to time.

I walked around the base, resting my gloved hand against the wall gently to feel the bumps and cracks as I went by. I always have had a knack for feeling. My eyesight was never the best, nor was my hearing. I suppose what you lack in one sense, you make up for with the others. I could feel the cool cement even through the gloved armor I was wearing on my fingers. The tips of my fingers tingled and cooled instantly, and I smiled. I've always been more comfortable with the cold than the warmth. It reminded me of the snow and the rain, my two favorite kinds of weather. I could feel every crack and every indent in the wall as I walked.

I eventually made my way into Mike's room, and my hand tingled when the cool sensation was lost, as the doorway was already open. Mike was sitting on his bed with his armor and helmet off, he was wearing his casual clothing, which consisted of his light gray loose fitting shirt and his blue/gray sweat pants. His right foot was propped up on the bed, hugged close to his chest with the pant leg raised and a bandage around it, the other was lazily hanging off the bed.

"Hey, Alex," he mumbled, resting his head on his raised knee. He sniffed and I realized he must have been crying. I never really get to see any of them being emotional, most of the time they're just trying to impress me, so this made my heart ache. Especially since it was Mike who was being emotional. That's just a big stomp on the heart, there.

I walked across the room and sat by Mike, being careful to not disturb his foot resting in bandages. I laid my hand on his back and leaned against his shoulder.

"You alright, Mikey?" I whispered. He leaned down and rested his head on the top of mine, resting both his hands on his knee.

"My toe hurts."

"Yeah, I bet it does," I smiled. I wrapped my arms around him, interlocking my hands together, and I felt him relaxed. "It wasn't very nice of Church to shoot you, huh?" He shook his head slightly. "It's okay. I'll get him back for you, 'kay?"

"Mmkay. Thank you, Alex," he smiled.

"Anything."


	6. Arguments galore!

Twenty minutes after checking up on Mike, he was up and about again. He still had a slight limp in his walk, but he was up and about anyway, despite many protests, of course. Sometime while I was trying to talk Mike into sitting back down, Tucker and Church went up to the roof of the base to continue their talk about the switch and what it did. And after walking about for a while, we eventually found them. Mike and I stood behind and watched as they talked, basically eavesdropping.

"You sure you didn't do anything? Like, you can't fix the tank, still?" Tucker asked, holstering his pistol. I have no idea why he had it out in the first place, but whatever. "You're still an idiot?"

"Hey, don't get upset at me! Derrix is the one who flipped the switch!" Church threw his hands up, nodding toward me.

"Oh, do not blame this on the girl! She doesn't know what she was doing!" Tucker shrugged. I scoffed and threw him a look.

"Sexist," I mumbled under my breath. Fuck him.

"What?" Tucker turned around.

"Nothing."

"Wait, wait, guys," Church held up his hands, silencing the rest of us. "Do you hear that?"

Tucker turned back around to face Church, "Is it like this constant screaming, high-pitched, whistling noise, followed by a series of random clicks?" Everybody was quiet for a moment while we all tried to absorb what he'd just said. Processing... processing... yeah, no, I don't understand what he said.

"What?" Church finally spoke up, sputtering. "N-no, dude, it's just like this constant 'beep, beep, beep' noise..."

"Oh. Then, no, I don't hear anything."

Mike looked around while they spoke, I assumed he was trying to listen for the noise as well. I didn't hear it, either, but then again, my hearing has always been pretty shitty so it's not a surprise. But the closer I looked, the more it looked like Mike was actually looking _at_ something, and not _for_ something. He kept looking around wildly, even taking a couple of steps away. Then Church realized what Tucker had said.

"Wait- do you- do you actually _hear_ a series of high pitched noises followed by some random clicks?"

"No," Tucker began in a completely relaxed voice, as if what he said was completely normal. "I was just trying to be helpful."

"Yeah, well, you're failing."

Mike finally spoke up, back in the original spot he was in before he began moving around oddly. "All I hear is that voice in the back of our head that tells us to kill all of our friends before they have the chance to kill us," he shrugged. Everything was silent. I took a step away from Mike slowly. He looked at us, confused. "What, you guys don't hear that?" They were still silent, and I shook my head, giving Mike a look. Then Church spoke up, sighing frustratingly.

"Oh, man, I can't take this anymore!" He shook his head, resting one hand on his hip and the other on his helmet. "Tucker, you're going to have to do something, this noise is driving me crazy!"

"Well, dude, what am I supposed to do?" Tucker shrugged.

"I don't know! Something!"

"Can I try looking?" Mike spoke up again, raising his hand as if he were in school and asking for permission to speak. Tucker and Church both gave him a look that obviously meant _no_ , but this is Mike we're talking about here, so he didn't get it. Church finally sighed and gave in.

"Yeah, go ahead."

Caboose walked to the front and began inspecting Church's armor, and I was half convinced he was just messing around and not actually paying any attention to finding anything. Especially with the 'beep, boop' sound effects he was making. While he did that, however, I contemplated what he'd meant by what he said earlier. It was possible that Omega was already in his head, I know, but I hadn't expected it to take a toll on him already. I mean, with Texas, is took a while before she was able to talk to me through my own mind, I assumed it'd take the same amount of time for Mike. Apparently Omega is impatient, it seems.

 _::You have no idea...::_

"Hey," Tucker said. I looked up at him, shocked. I must have zoned out, and he had noticed. He was standing beside me now, looking down at me. "What're you thinking about?" I shrugged. I crossed my arms and cleared my throat, looking at the ground.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," I glanced over at Church and Mike. Church was looking at us, skeptically, and Mike was still rooting around his armor trying to find something.

"Really? Y'know, if-"

"Aha!" Mike shouted, excited. We all looked over at him, and he sat back. Huh. Maybe he _was_ looking for something. "I found a lever!" Nevermind. Mike said something under his breath, but I didn't bother to pay attention to it.

Tucker walked back over to them. "Oh, yeah, that's it," he said. "Just flip it."

"Wait, stop-" Church interrupted. I saw something move from the corner of my eye, and I turned to look. I stifled my laugh. It was the warthog. Church was controlling it. "Caboose, do you know how to work a switch?"

"Uhhh..."

"Alright here's the full tutorial."

Church told Mike how to turn the switch, which was just saying 'turn it around', and the car turned around and began to drive off. I stopped paying attention to what they were saying and just watched the car.

 _::Are you fucking serious?::_

"I have no idea," I laughed under my breath.

"You say somethin'?" Church asked, looking up at me. I noticed that Tucker had moved to help Mike with the switch, and I vaguely wondered how hard it is to turn a switch. It's not that hard.

"Hm?" I hummed, taking my attention off of the car to look at him. "Oh, no, no I didn't say anything. I'm just... talking to myself," I laughed nervously.

"But how can you say nothing _and_ talk to yourself? That doesn't make sense," Mike mumbled. I sighed. I looked back over to where the car was, and saw that it was missing.

 _::The only area over there is the Red base. Must be there.::_

Yeah, you'd know a lot about where the Reds are, huh?

 _::Only as much as you know about how to disarm a Freelancer.::_

Okay, that was uncalled for.

 _::Uncalled for? No, what was uncalled for was you kicking me to the ground!::_

I though I apologized-

 _::ANOTHER THING, is HOW you even knew how to do something like that. In my experience, it takes a lot to down a Freelancer. It would definitely require someone who had just as much, if not more, training as they had.::_

You'd know a lot about downing your pals, hm?

A sharp pain went through my body at that point, and I froze. Oh yeah, I forgot she could do that. Sometimes she can send a small burst of electricity through my body. It was kind of like how Omega can sometimes control other people's minds, but she could only make me feel things, not control me. I gasped and Tucker looked at me.

"You sure you're okay, Derrix?" Church asked, giving me a weird look.

"Mhm. Yep. Perfectly fine." Church dismissed it, obviously not really caring if I was okay or not, which kind of hurt me but also relieved me that he wasn't prying. Tucker and Mike went back to pulling at wires and what not, and I sighed, getting over the shock(no pun intended.)

Jerk.

 _::Bitch.::_


	7. Oddities

((Sorry for the delay, guys! Also sorry that this chapter is so short. I'm trying to get through this writers block. I also have a HUGE plot twist coming up soon! It has to do with what happens with Sarge in this chapter (; I also wrote some more development between Alex and Tucker. Hope you likey))

"Okay, Church, you ready? I'm gonna yank the wire out," Tucker asked.

"Yeah, yeah, dude, whatever, just hurry it up," Church muttered, waving his arms to exaggerate his point.

"Alright.." he responds quietly. He counted down from 3, readying himself to pull out the wire. Once he got to one, I interjected.

"Hey, wait," I walked forward, kneeling down next to Tucker and Mike. "What?" He asked, freezing his movements. I remembered what was going on over at Red base, something about Sarge being held at gunpoint. The car moving around in the background made me realize what it really was. Sarge was being held against the base of the wall with the Warthog shooting a gun aimed at him head.

"What is it?" Tucker repeated, retracting his hands so he didn't pull anything by accident.

"I, uh, nevermind. Continue," I stood back up and walked over to the area I was standing at earlier. In the show, Sarge wasjust barely saved from being shot because Tucker pulled out the wire at the very last second. I just wanted to know what would have happened if he didn't save Sarge.

I just wanted to know if I could change the timeline and alter the future.

Tucker and Church just gave me odd looks and I looked down, biting back a smile. It was so fun to mess with people, even if it was for a good reason. Mike however, didn't seem to notice, and he turned to Tucker excitedly.

"Can I pull the wire?"

"Yeah, Caboose, go ahead. Anything to get this noise out of my head," Church sighed, dismissing the odd interruption. Tucker didn't, though. He continued to give me an odd look, and when I shrugged at him, he sighed and stood up. Mike pulled the wire out while Tucker took a few steps back, closer to me.

A second went by when nothing happened.

"Ah, yes! Fucking finally!" Church sighed, dropping his head. "Some fucking peace and quiet! That thing was gonna drive me nuts."

Mike and Church continued talking about it, and I believe they started talking about why Church couldn't move his legs, but I wasn't listening. I was trying to concentrate on anything except for how close Tucker was. He was standing beside me, with his arms crossed. I could almost feel his armor touching mine, and I contemplated putting my helmet back on. I had taken it off because I couldn't stand breathing in warm air, but I'd rather breath in warm air than show Tucker just how much he was affecting me.

"Hey, Alex," he whispered, only just loud enough for me to hear.

"Hi, Tucker." I looked away.

"Are you okay?" I scoffed.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

Tucker laughed quietly. "Because we're worried-" I turned and gave him a look that clearly read, 'really?' I nodded to Church and gave him the look again. "I'm worried," he corrected himself. I scoffed and looked away again.

"Why are you worried? There's nothing happening, I'm fine," I crossed my arms, mimicking his own position. I heard him shift beside me. He didn't respond for a while. I turned my body just slightly to look at him from the corner of my eyes. He was wearing his helmet, so I couldn't tell his expression, but he looked straight ahead.

"Why do you care if something's up, Tucker?" I asked again, genuinely curious to hear his answer.

"Because you're the only person in this shithole of a canyon that I can talk to," he finally answered, quiet.

"Tucker, man, come on, Caboose is only fucking shit up," Church called, interrupting us before I could respond. Not that I had a response to that, of course. I stood still as he walked away, back over to Church and Mike to help with whatever they had been arguing about before. I stood in silence and thought over what he had said.

I was glad that my helmet was off, now. If it were on, I would be hearing Tex's unending teasing about the way that one sentence made me feel. Though I contemplated it for a split second, because at least then, one of us would know how I felt, because I certainly didn't.


	8. Chapter 8, For Lack Of A Better Title

**_((Sorry for my absence! But know that I have finally decided to continue this story! I thank everyone who gave me such nice compliments while I was away, and everyone else who gave me wonderful reviews- and also to that one anonymous flamer: you're such an ass lol. Anyway, here's the story! Thanks for sticking with me! Updates should be at least twice a month, maybe more if I can motivate myself enough!))_**

"Oooh, this is great," Church called out, sarcastic. "Just fucking great!"

Just moments after Tucker went back over to assist Mike with which wires to pull, they ended up pulling the wrong ones. It may have silenced the noise in Church's head, but now he was completely immobile. He couldn't move his legs, and he continued to rant about it to a laughing Tucker and a saddened Mike, perhaps because he was being yelled at.

"Come on, Caboose, now what am I supposed to do?" Church sighed, aggravated. "My lower half is damaged." Tucker only laughed harder, and I couldn't help but grin at the way Church had worded the sentence.

"...why don't you try.. walking it off!" Caboose answered, seemingly pleased with his own answer.

"I can't, idiot, my legs don't work."

"Ooh, I see..."

...

"Have you tried running?"

I could practically feel the anger radiating off of Church, and, thank God, Tucker interrupted before Church could go off on Mike, the poor thing.

"This doesn't really seem like that big of a deal! You hardly ever used your legs anyway," Tucker tried to reason.

My eyes wandered over to the hill separating the Blue base from the Red base. My plan to alter the timeline may have worked, I had yet to find out. It was soon after Church's legs were disabled that Red team showed up on our base, and they had yet to do so. I vaguely thought about the fact that if my plan did work, I probably just killed the Red team Sergeant, but I shook the thought from my mind.

Nobody ever really dies in this show, that's for sure.

However, I did start to wonder why Tex had been so silent all this time. Sure, taking off the helmet would vanish her for a short while, but she always found a way to get back in. I turned the arctic blue helmet in my hands, staring at the orange tinted visor for a moment before turning it, placing it over my eyes, and clicking the latches shut. I waited for a moment and watched everything load up, lights flashing about where the armor was in need of repair or could use a shine up. And, in a moment, Tex was up on my screen.

"Hey, Tex," I mumbled, keeping my voice low as I spoke to the A.I.

" _Hey, poindexter._ "

"I don't know what that means, but I'm assuming it's an insult-"

" _It's an insult._ "

"Yeah, I thought so."

I sighed, keeping an eye on the arguing trio of blues as my eyes occasionally glanced over the hill, waiting for the Reds.

" _You tried to kill their Sergeant by blaming it on someone he considers a son? That's colder than even what I'd do, Alex_."

"Shush. But, hey, listen up, you've dealt with time travelling and altering the future, right?"

" _Not really, no. That was Wyoming who did that, not me. The bastard couldn't help but love himself enough to make a hundred copies of himself and place them through out the timeline._ "

"Oh..."

I thought again, trying to come up with a suitable question to ask Texas. Nothing in particular, but as I hate not knowing things, and none of my current questions were getting answers, I just wanted an answer to something- anything..

" _Then maybe you'll get an answer to your earlier question,_ " Tex seemed to mumble, then disappeared.

"What do you mean?" But it was too late; she had left. My thoughts were interrupted by Mike's voice, drawn out in concern.

"Uuuhhh, Church?" He asked, looking off into the distance. Everyone focused on him. "I think that you should know that the reds are-"

"Damn it, Caboose!" Church hissed. "In the short time that I've known you, you managed to call my girlfriend a slut, blow me up with a tank, shoot me in the head, and now paralyzed me from the waist down!"

Caboose shrank back against his voice, which was now growing harsher and louder as he continued his rant.

"So I think it wouldn't be too much to ask, if for _once_ , _you'd shut your_ _ **fucking mouth**_!"

" _CHURCH_ ," I shouted, taking a step toward Mike. Bullying wasn't something I stood for, especially not to Mike when he was just trying to help. Although, as I stepped forward, Tucker and Church were no longer blocking my view and I could see what Mike had been talking about. The words I had planned to shout out at Church instantly died in my throat as I glanced back at the three Reds below the base.

And, as Church and Tucker looked over at me in what I assumed was shock for yelling out at the superior officer, Simmons spoke up from the other side.

"Hey, Blues," he called, seemingly relaxed about the whole thing, as if everything going down in Blue base hadn't affected them at all- which it hadn't, I suppose. "We're here to..." Simmons trailed off, his tone changing to one of suspicion and slight disgust.

"...What the _hell_ are you guys doing?"


End file.
